CZUR Book & Document Scanner with Smart OCR for Mac and Windows

I am a Med student and we need to read A LOT... I usually just buy second-hand books or borrow them from the library, but the scanning process takes forever. One day I found this scanner on FB, so my roommate and I decided to buy one and share.It arrived pretty soon and came with a large box. No assembling was needed. We followed the instructions: download the software from czur.com and check the instruction video on their website. It did take me a while to figure out how to use it, but after trying, I think it’s pretty handy. It scans super fast, and only took half hour for one book, basically as quickly as taking pictures. I use the foot pedal so that I can spare my hands to press the book.Pros:1.The flatten curve and finger erasing function work surprisingly well (as I saw some previous comments about it), making the page much more comfortable to read.2.The scan output is in JPG format, but you can select them all at once to convert into PDF, so that is ok.3.The thing I like most is that I can save all the PDF images to my Kindle, which has been a great help!4.The OCR function works well too, in which way I can transfer the JPG files into Word documents for easy editing.Cons:1.You do need to go through the instruction guide or video to figure out how to use it properly.2.When scanning reflective materials, the exposure was hard to adjust. The customer service sent us a free LED light to solve the problem. As long as I turn off the other lights and use the single LED light they sent me, the images come out fine.After all, I think it’s worth to buy, and very convenient as a book scanner. Just make sure you spend some time learning how it works. Besides, the customer service has been a great support and you can reach them from their website.

I've only had this for a day, so I may have to update this review as I use it more. Assuming something doesn't break right away, I've played with it enough to declare it VERY USEFUL, a huge leap forward in technology. Perhaps even a 'revolution' in my way of life ;)I read books from the 1800's that are long out of print, not available anywhere except maybe ONE lending library if I'm lucky. I also like to scan individual pages out of a thick music score when I'm traveling. Has worked well in both those cases on my test runs. In fact, scanning with this device has made easy what was before sometimes impossible. Seems like a great way to scan handwritten notes too, though I've not used it for that yet.What I ESPECIALLY like:- I can scan books, sheet music, etc that are lying flat on my desk. The 'autoscan' feature activates after pages have been flipped, so you can multitask and just flip pages when you're ready. It waits for you while you vacuum or whatever. I put a weight inside the 'thumb glove' to keep pages open while I'm away after flipping. Scan quality was excellent on all things I tried so far.- When not in use, I now use the scanner as THE lamp for my desk area-- it illuminates my entire work space quite evenly. They even provided 2 additional USB-rechargeable portable LED desk lamps -- a MOST pleasant surprise -- better than any I've bought on the market.- The OCR and PDF work sufficiently well for me. The page curvature elimination works very well also. The 'thumbprints' from holding the pages down sometimes don't get edited out completely; but this doesn't bother me too much. I might eventually find out what's wrong on those pages where it hasn't worked.So I gave it 5 stars despite some 'rough edges' which are as follows:- documentation is very minimal and incomplete, so you've got to figure a lot of stuff out on your own by just trying things.- installing on windows requires running the app with admin privileges, a pain. They explicitly say in the provided documentation (such as it is) that it runs only under windows not MAC, but I haven't tried obtaining MAC Software which is rumored to be available online. I have computers that run everything, so I'm OK with using it on windows for now. Linux would be my #1 choice.- GUI is very barebones and primitive, but gets the job done. I personally don't require a lot of polish in a GUI as long as I can do what I want.- When OCR-ing a book, you get blocks of text interspersed with headers, which I suppose is to be expected. I'm after text and almost never care about photos. I'm a decent python programmer and so can post-process headers out. Also, I don't like how OCR goes to *.doc files by default; I usually prefer working with straight text in this context, and the intermediate 'doc' files will require some thought for use in batch processing.All in all though, to sum up in one word: spectacular! Kudos to the developers.

I have come to regret this purchase. Due of the constant frustration of having to retake bad images, this product does NOT perform as expected. More, yes, I said MORE than half the pictures have to be retaken due to stretched, truncated, tilted, or distorted pages. I take the time to take a picture and wait for the results before I retake or move on to the next page. After making a few tests of not moving the book and just taking several pictures, I got different results with each picture, more bad than good, but all different. I should get the exact same result each time with a stable quality product. I've imaged about 35 books to date, and have had to spend way too much time than they market. Sure the machine can work that fast but your results are extremely sub-standard and mostly illegible. They just upgraded the software version and nothing appears to have changed except now it's more difficult to delete the bad images on the fly and resume. Great, another step backwards...

Watched a couple of short videos on how to scan a book to a searchable PDF. First time through scanner worked well and I was able to complete without issue. The book I scanned had glossy finish and I was able to adjust the lighting to prevent glare in the images taken.

I really like this scanner. it is make my scannering much easier. and save me so much time. I using this for scannering some of my important books. and the time what I spend to scannering is 10 times faster if not I've faster. I have this for 5 years now. I just head a problem but the costumer service is really helpful.